Lady Steers advance to Area round

EASTLAND — In the swiftest of fashions, the Big Spring Lady Steers grabbed the Bi-District championship from the Vernon Lady Lions Tuesday night in Eastland. The girls needed only three games to claim the title and advance to a meeting with Kennedale in the Area round of the playoffs.

Cerbi Ritchey was a dominating force on the net again, as the Lady Steers won the games decisively 25-16, 25-15 and 25-16. This Daughter of Thunder led Big Spring with 11 kills and four aces. Many times during the game, Vernon players could be seen dodging for cover from one of her powerful spikes. Three of them never reached safety, as the ball — not too unlike a Nolan Ryan fastball — found them and delivered a painful reminder of the game.

Every time she served, Big Spring scored a minimum of five points. Ritchey also added 15 assists, 11 digs and three blocks to the stat sheet for the Lady Steers.

Ritchey was joined to form an unstoppable force on the net by Morgan Seaton. Seaton led the team with a game-high 19 assists, while also accumulating nine digs, five blocks and three kills.

Behind the setters, leading the team with an unthinkable 10 blocks, was Diamond Mayes. With Mayes was Taylor Seaton with eight blocks and an ace. The two also combined for 15 kills and 12 digs.

Rounding out the offensive production for Big Spring was Haley Dimidjian with eight kills, eight digs, three blocks and an ace.

Big Spring flew through the first two games, reaching 10 and 11 point leads. In Game 3, after Ritchey served the Lady Steers up a 6-0 lead, Vernon found their second wind and tried to make a game out of it. The Lady Lions rallied back after a timeout and got to within two points of Big Spring on two occasions, 9-7 and 11-9.

Big Spring took their only time out of the night at this point and though it is unconfirmed what Coach Osborne actually said to the girls, it surely amounted to: “That’s enough”. Big Spring pushed back immediately after the break, advancing their lead to 16-10, before eventually claiming the trophy with a 25-15 final score.

The Lady Steers were led defensively by Carson Reibe with 20 digs. Logan Yarbar and Clara Benavides combined for 10 kills, while Benavides added three kills and two blocks.

The Lady Steers will face Kennedale this Friday at Albany High School in Albany. The game will start at 5:30 p.m.